Christmas trees and 1st anniversary

 

Good morning Friends ~ It is a sunshiny morning, almost 9 a.m. I am thankful for this new day. A year ago this morning at 10:12 my dear husband, best friend and soul mate, Mark, went home to be with Jesus. What a year it has been!  Full of grieving, growing, loving, living.  Each day is new.  Each day is an opportunity to choose despair, or joy.  I choose joy.  I know where Mark is and that is part of the reason for my joy.  I know that we will be together again and that is something to look forward to. Trusting in Jesus to work all things out and leaning on Him is my greatest source of joy.  Without Him I would be nothing.  Through His strength I can do anything. I wrote a piece for my other blog “The Continuing Journey” and you can read it by clicking here, if you wish.

This afternoon is a staff meeting for my widows’ group, Friends Needing Friends, and I’m planning to bake and take some heart shaped cookies. These ladies and the whole group of widows have been a tremendous help to me this past year.  I am thankful for them.

I want to thank all of you at this time also for your continued love, encouragement, your prayers and thoughts, your gifts, your friendship.  You all mean a lot to me and you’ve been a big help in this part of the journey in my life.

Yesterday I decorated the trees and a little more in the cottage. I was exhausted when I finished.  It is well worth the effort though.  I love decorating for Christmas.  I love the lights, colors, the sparkle, and seeing all of the ornies, collected and given through the years.  They bring back a LOT of memories. I did shed a few tears, mostly I smiled and love filled my heart.

Here are the photos. I apologize for the blurry quality of some of the pictures, I was tired and not ‘focusing’, pun intended.

I crocheted these ornaments many, many, years ago.

Taken last night

taken this morning

A long, long time ago, I got the idea to hang ornies along the ceiling, and Mark liked the idea too.  So, little nails were nailed and spaced about 4 inches apart along the ceiling. I used to hang ornies around the whole living room ceiling, but not anymore.  Some of these hanging from the Swiss boy right, are Mark’s from when he was a boy.  Every year his Mom would give each of her children a new ornament.  When those kids got married, the couples got an ornament.  It was always a wonderful treat each year.  Some are very special!

This one is a little quail’s egg from Mark’s Mom.

She made this one in ceramic’s class, I believe it is porcelain.  A favorite of ours.

This was made by a friend.

I bought this one at the flea market many years ago, I am a little part American Indian.

These were made by a friend.

Mark’s Mom made this also and the first year we got it there were 2 chocolate kisses in it.

This is one of my all time favorites made by Mark’s Mom.

This was our last ornaments from her.  They are a sweet lion couple.

Here is the tree I did for our bedroom.  I call it the ‘Love’ tree.  Since there is ongoing plumbing work and wall paneling not up, I covered the walls with a huge sheer curtain.  It works for me.

This is the Charlie Brown tree, our last curbside find together in Sept. 2012.

A friend gave me this ornie with Mark’s photo in it.  I love it.

I crocheted this stuffed little heart many years ago.  The heart garland was ‘found’ in some Christmas stuff one year, more curbside shopping.

I bought the quilted heart, and made the lavender stuffed M ornament for Mark.

I made this needlework heart for Mark last Dec. 1st. The little heart below it was made by the same dear friend who gave me the photo ornament.

The heart in the middle was created for me by another friend and sent at Valentine’s day this past year. I’ve had it hanging ever since over the arch between living room and kitchen.  I always hang this Swiss couple over the arch each Christmas and this heart works just right between them.

May you all have lovely holidays,

filled with much love,

thankfulness,

kindness,

forgiveness.

Love and hugs ~ FlowerLady

 

Forgotten ‘curbside’ found tree

 

What a surprise was in the attic.  I went up there this morning to get the ‘huge’ tree down that I was only going to use half of and put it against the wall.  Well, there were three black tagged bags up there, one said top, another said middle and the last one said bottom. I brought them down and unbagged what was three sections to a tree, complete with lights.  I barely remember finding this after Christmas one year, just pitched on the side of the road.  I am a sucker for Christmas trees and Mark was a good sport especially if they were ‘free’. I now have 5 trees, three ‘free’ and two small ones we paid $2 and $3 for at yard sales. I can just hear Mark laughing at my finding this tree in the attic and enjoying seeing his RaineyWife setting it up, with a huge smile on her face. I just couldn’t get over it.

The only thing is, this does not have a stand so I had to rig something.  I’ll try to find something better for the next time I use it.

Three sections and the branches drop down and you fluff them into positions you want. At least 4 strands of lights, maybe 5.  I had to figure out how to plug them into each other to get them all to work.  I just can’t explain how happy this makes me.  A surprise tree, completely forgotten because I think it was just after Christmas 2011, it was put in the attic and a lot has happened since then.  Last year I used the Charlie Brown tree, our last curbside find together in September last year, I think.

Right now the sky has darkened so the house has darkened inside and the tree looks so pretty lit.  Thank you God for another gift.

Before I set the tree up, I went out to mow and was sweating in December.  It is very warm and humid, does not feel like Christmas at all. I just checked the weather and it’s 81. Not as bad as it gets in the summer, but come on, this is fall/winter time. The a.c. is running.

Right now I feel like taking a nap, so I think that’s what I’ll do. Decorating the trees can wait and I’ll just take my time and enjoy doing it and all the memories attached to the ornies will fill my heart with love.

FlowerLady

Computers working, nativity set up

 

Good morning everyone ~ Here it is Thursday already. Tuesday I took my lap top and my desk top computers to the computer geek I found out about from church. I also took some crocheting so that I had something to work on while he was working on computers.  They are both up and running well. I had no viruses which was a good thing, but they both had some problems and needed cleaning up.  He even found a couple of ‘lost’ things for me and I am a happy camper and oh so thankful to have found him.

I have really been feeling uplifted and light hearted and am thankful for that too.  God is working in my life daily and I know that Mark is with him and that makes all the difference in my grieving.  I miss Mark every day, but I am getting into the groove of living alone, although not really alone because God is with me constantly. I feel Mark’s love all around me.

Yesterday morning I decided to go up into the attic for Christmas decorations.  We have one of those pull down ladders.  What a job that was!!  Mark was always at the foot of the stairs to take what I handed down to him that I wanted, not always the same, as it depended on what tree I was going to use. I rigged a basket to let some things down, but that wasn’t the best idea, most of it was me up and down the ladder hauling things.  I’ve decided that ‘most’ of all of this will go somewhere else so that I don’t have to do that as it’s not easy at all and a tad scary.

Anyway, there are boxes all over and I did put a small tree in my little space. I just got the lights on yesterday. Look how cleaned off my workspace is!

Then I worked on the nativity on my new/old mantle.

Here’s the mantle top before and after.

I think it was an old vanity or desk top. I just sanded it down with fine sand paper, then oiled with lemon oil polish.

Ok, here is this year’s Nativity scene, angels, critters, worshipers.

Click on photos for larger views.

This star is one Mark made our first married Christmas together in Spain. We were poor as he hadn’t been in very long and his pay was small. We made other ornaments too but through the years they bit the dust, this one I hung onto even though some of the gold is worn off.

It is gold foil covered cardboard.

The Holy Family, cow, donkey and three wise men are from Spain.  They are little terra cotta mud figures.  We bought them in a shop in the square of our little town that we lived in.

Hand painted old lead soldiers, in the silver little salt and pepper shakers is frankincense in one and myrrh in the other.

Mark made the crèche many, many years ago.

Baby Jesus is laying on a bed of rosemary, and is on an intricately done little piece of needlework. An old copper bracelet with charms surrounds baby Jesus.

This little angel is Mark’s from when he was a little boy. I included the cross as a symbol of what Jesus was coming to do for all of mankind.  Give his life so that we’d be ‘free’.

Some angels collected through the years. Some found, and most bought cheap from flea market and yard sales.

Mark cut a scrap piece of blue mirror one year for little ducks to be floating on.

Today I ‘plan’ to get down the big tree, but only put up half of it and place it against the wall.  That worked fine the two times I’ve done it already, with weights in the stand to hold it upright. This tiny cottage just can’t handle a full big tree.

I’m also planning to put the Charlie Brown tree that was our last curbside find together last year, up in the bedroom. So, I’ve got my work cut out for me.  Plus I’ll be working at my job too this week, and I’d like to mow the grass today.

Here are some blooms for you who are cold and snowed in.

Two colors of blooms from the same bougainvillea.

This is ‘cocktail’.

An unknown rose that smells wonderful.

This guy cracks me up every time I see him,

he was part of a win earlier this year.

Today is a new day, I wish to rejoice and be glad in it. 

I pray to learn and grow, as I go about my daily doings.

Love and hugs to all of you ~ FlowerLady

Rain, a project and a thank you

Good morning dear friends ~ It is Monday, gray, drippy and cool.  We had quite a bit of rain yesterday, starting in the afternoon and going on into the night.  Good for gardens.

Thank you for your  kind comments, they really uplift my spirits at this time. On the 9th will make one year since Mark left this planet for his heavenly home. Prayers work wonders too and I am grateful for them also.

I got a name of a man who is a computer geek from the church, and was introduced to him yesterday morning and will be taking my computer to him maybe tomorrow.  I've got to call him later today. I met his wife also, and liked them both.

I've been wanting to create some sort of mantle over the tv for quite some time now, and yesterday afternoon I did something about it.  I found in our stash a stripped vanity top. I sanded it down with fine sand paper then used lemon oil polish on it and it turned out nice.  I then screwed a strip of wood to the wall, (the third time I got it right. I'm sure Mark got a good laugh over that), to rest the back of mantle on, and the front rests on the tv.  Then I searched for the right material from my stash, to hang from the mantle and after several maybes, I finally found what I wanted and love the results.

I'm in my lap top and had to take pictures with my little camera as this computer wouldn't take the photos from my other camera's chip.  I'm probably not doing something right, obviously.  With the other camera I got before and after pics of the top and you can see the shape of the top with a nice routed edge. I'll post later when I get my repaired/restored computer back.

The Christmas Creche that dear Mark made me many moons ago will go on the mantle and I will work the angels in somewhere too.  I am looking forward to decorating, may put up 2-3 trees, a first.  They are all in the attic along with all of the ornies. I have always enjoyed decorating for Christmas.

Well, folks, that is it for now from Plum Cottage. My spirits feel better and I am thankful for so much.  Mark is in a better place and when my turn comes I will be reunited with him.  Until then, I want to be thankful every single day for all that God blesses me with, for lessons learned and that I am learning.

Love and hugs ~ FlowerLady